I stumbled upon this blog like I did yours. Though their insight on work was very meaningful: http://burisonthecouch.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/our-house/

Thanks for the post! I’d love to see more like it.

1) Buy an aeropress.
2) Buy some fresh roasted coffee. Whole Foods at Fairoaks will do.
3) Go to Murky’s and just pay for hot water. Tell them you want it at 178 to 182 degrees farenheit. If it’s wrong, give it back and make them do it again.
4) Make your own coffee.
5) For spite, offer to make one for the “barista”. Do not charge him/her.

It’ll be much better than what you can get there, and you’ll be making some poor soul’s day, by giving them really, really good coffee.

6) Remember to tip.

“I would ask a fashion designer to embroider Minnie Mouse on my shirt if I wanted it that way, because I would be paying that fashion designer for a service. And if I want to put ketchup on my nigiri, I don’t think the sushi chef has a right to say anything.

“They are in service industries, and I couldn’t care less about what offends their delicate sensibilities. Please.”

The barista was way out of line. Granted. However, if I as a typical monolingual xenophobic (OK, not really) low-class American troglodyte want to learn what’s involved with a higher-class service or product, I am not going to throw my weight around (and I got lots of it! I’m an American!) trying to dictate how that service or product will be done for/sold to me. Because I HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA.

Minnie Mouse is not used on haute couture. Ketchup is not even SERVED in a Japanese restaurant, ESPECIALLY not one that specializes in sushi. And if the whole point is to try something new and something maybe a little higher-class than you’re used to having, maybe it’s a little bit courteous to find out the PROPER way to do it or buy it or whatever.

Because social class is basically a type of culture, regardless of how high or low it is. And what do you do when you move into someone else’s culture? You learn to act and speak and eat as they do.

It’s hilarious to me that when immigrants come here we give them no end of grief for not speaking English, not going to church, and not being like us in every conceivable way. But when we go overseas we don’t bother learning the local language, and when we eat or drink things that are foreign in this country, we corporatize them and homogenize them and adulterate them until they are unrecognizable to the people who created them.

And then we wonder why the rest of the world sees us as fat, lazy, ignorant, uncultured troglodytes.

By the way? “Service personnel” is not code for “slave.” So no, the customer is NOT always right, and sometimes the customer is very damn WRONG. And if I ever own my own retail establishment and someone comes in copping attitude with me because I’m “just” a service professional or “just” earn a low wage then they are getting thrown out on their ear. After I point and laugh at them very loudly.

God. In the UK they take that “customer is always right” thing so literally they feel free to HIT store employees. God help us if we ever get to that point here.

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

I don’t think we as Americans should play the “know-it-all” role on this one. Why not just KISS and stick with good old American values: the customer is always right.

This random tidbit comes to mind when Americans are “high and mighty” about café or culinary culture: a large portion of the world calls Ketchup – “American Sauce” I guess one of the true American influences on haute cuisine? ;)

“Defacing” federal currency is not a felony unless it’s with the intent to commit fraud. He didn’t take a Sharpie and draw a bunch of extra zeroes after the one; therefore, no crime was committed.

To everybody who’s talking about “educating” people on what to look for in coffee: if you have to be taught that something tastes good in order to notice it, it doesn’t actually taste good. You can waste time and money “educating your palate”… I’m going to drink something that tastes as good the first time as it does the seventeenth.

I’m not dreaming, I’m informed.

I was an early devotee of Starbucks before they began their policy of each store being in line of site of the adjacent one. One of my favorite anecdotes was a visit to a Starbucks in Seattle in the early 90’s where the ebullient fellow behind the counter talked my ear off on the subtleties of the many varieties of beans they had to offer, and recommended grinding them finely because he guessed (correctly) that I had a Krups coffee maker with a fine meshed filter simply based on where I lived (San Francisco).

Flash by nearly two decades and Starbucks is closing 600 stores because they became as diluted as their coffee. Seems not only small independents are susceptible.

But the zeal I experienced that time comes close to what I seem to detect about the folks at Murky. To that effect, I’d love to have such a coffeeshop nearby, if only to absorb that vibe of people passionate about what they do and make, not to mention getting a superior cup of coffee. And I don’t worry about whether they’re condescending or arrogant to me – I have enough self-esteem not to be affected thus.

Honestly, some of these posters that have a problem with Nick, David, et al must have some serious self-image issues for them to get all “I won’t have some wage-earner get all uppity on me” (head swaying and finger wagging).

And for the life of me, I can’t understand the negative response to Nick’s open letter. I thought it was hilarious and read it in exactly the same vein as Jeff’s blog. And while I’m no fan of profanity, I do recognize its use to emphasize a point, which Nick did well as a retort (I agree with DailyCaveat, however, that Jeff’s was totally unwarranted). And his follow-up was nothing short of masterful.

I’m just sorry that Nick has the tax problems that totally undercut his position and allow his detractors to circuitously (and irrelevantly) skewer him. He could have been the quirky wiseguy who nonetheless is dedicated to and passionate about his craft and practices it with an anti-corporate, devil-may-care attitude, but is reduced to a tax cheat and deadbeat. Let me just say that as a fellow Korean-American, I’m disappointed – what his parents must think of him…

As for the ghetto latte angle, what gets me is when I go through a MacDonalds drive-thru (OK, I show my true colors but sometimes I want an egg mcmuffin and don’t want to make a second trip for coffee), and I ask for one creme and two sugars and they give me like five cremes and 20 sugars (and about 50 napkins and they forget a stirrer). What a waste – it’s clear that these folks don’t have any sense of ownership. For a small business owner, to get shafted by both customers and employees like these must be maddening.

To finish, I do have to comment that DailyCaveat’s posts are intelligent, finely worded, and absolutely cuts to the point, rendering those who oppose him as blathering idiots. Johnathan Schelling’s few words on modern, superficial, conspicuous-consumer-driven, catered-to-the-masses life was so entertaining, he should have a blog of his own. And Carl Weaver, you make a fine unbiased and honest moderator. I’m sure you all can die happy upon hearing my assessments ;)

The “ghetto latte” fix your prices, don’t try to pull a fast one on a customer. Tried to order a shot in a 16 oz drip once, the place called it a shot in the dark – charged 1.50 more than a 16 oz and single shot. For what? Just trying to rip a customer off. Say you sell your espresso for .75 a shot, your cost for cup, lid and sleeve(to go) is ~.23, the milk – say you go crazy an use a full 8 oz. that’s a quarter. Latte cost 1.23 – customer cost 2.85 (just for giggles) Wow, that’s over 100% markup, how do you justify?